Essential Mindfulness Practices

Thich Nhat Hanh’s central teaching is that, through mindfulness, we can learn to live in the present moment instead of in the past and in the future. It’s only way to truly develop peace, both in one’s self and in the world. Now, for the first time, all of Thich Nhat Hanh’s key practices are collected in one accessible and easy-to-use volume. Happiness is structured to introduce those new to Buddhist teachings as well as for more experienced practitioners, Happiness is the quintessential resource of mindfulness practices. Integrating these practices into daily life allows the reader to begin to cultivate peace and joy within him/herself, leading to solidity and freedom from fear, misunderstanding, and suffering.

With the practices offered in Happiness Thich Nhat Hanh encourages the reader to learn to do all the things they do in daily life with mindfulness; to walk, sit, work, eat, and drive, with full awareness of what they are doing. It can bring about a shift towards one of the principles of engaged Buddhism, a shift towards practicing mindfulness in every moment of the day and not just while ‘formally’ meditating.

Thich Nhat Hanh encourages his readers to “try to be intelligent and skillful in their practice, approaching every aspect of the practice with curiosity and a sense of search. It’s important to practice with understanding and not just for the form and appearance. Enjoy your practice with a relaxed and gentle attitude, with an open mind and receptive heart.”

Born in Hue, Vietnam, Thich Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist monk, poet, scholar, and human rights activist. In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. He is author of more than one hundred books, and is one of the best known Buddhist teachers in the world today. Previous best-selling books include Being Peace and Buddha Mind Buddha Body. He lives at Plum Village, his meditation center in France, and travels worldwide, leading retreats on the art of mindful living.

Because you are alive, everything is possible

Thich Nhat Hanh

Related products

Old Path White Clouds presents the life and teachings of Gautama Buddha. Drawn directly from 24 Pali, Sanskrit, and Chinese sources, and retold by Thich Nhat Hanh in his inimitably beautiful style, this book traces the Buddha’s life slowly and gently over the course of 80 years, partly through the eyes of Svasti, the buffalo...

Freedom is not given to us by anyone; we have to cultivate it ourselves. – Thich Nhat Hanh This compendium of the core teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, based on a talk given at a prison, shows how mindfulness practice can cultivate freedom no matter where you are.

A bestseller with over 250,000 copies sold, Being Peace is the seminal founding work by Zen Master and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh. With a new introduction by Jack Kornfield and the first update since its release over fifteen years ago, this eloquent meditation on “being peace in order to make peace” is...

Thich Nhat Hanh explores the connection between psychology, neuroscience, and meditation. He discuss the importance of creativity and visualization in a successful meditation practice, presents basic Buddhist practices (in particular walking meditation and sitting meditation), and writes about the importance of brotherhood and sisterhood in finding love, happiness, and living harmoniously with others. Buddha Mind,...

Over the years, Thich Nhat Hanh and his monastic community in Plum Village, have developed more and more ways to integrate mindfulness practices into every aspect of their daily life. A few years back Thich Nhat Hanh began to develop gentle exercises based on Yoga and Tai Chi movements. Initially designed as mindful stretching breaks...

We all share the experience of carrying with us the one question that has always seemingly stood in the way of the next step in our personal development, the development of our spiritual practice, or our understanding of ourselves. Answers from the Heart collects 50 of these most important and heartfelt questions posed to Thich Nhat...

In Touching Peace, Thich Nhat Hanh expands the teachings on practicing the art of mindful living begun in the best selling Being Peace by giving specific, practical instructions on extending our meditation practice into our daily lives. The book reminds us to focus on what is refreshing and healing within and all around us, and...

Drawn from Thich Nhat Hanh’s Dharma talks given to young people, A Pebble for Your Pocket presents the basic teachings of the Buddha in accessible and modern language. Combining the stories and mediation practices from the previous edition of A Pebble for your Pocket with those collected in Under the Rose Apple Tree plus several...

Based on Dharma talks by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and insights from participants in retreats for healing the inner child, this book is an exciting contribution to the growing trend of using Buddhist practices to encourage mental health and wellness. Reconciliation focuses on the theme of mindful awareness of our emotions and healing our...

Solid Ground: Buddhist Wisdom for Difficult Times is a lively and topical book that offers guidance on how to respond to the individual crises that inevitably arise in all of our lives as well as to the political, economic, and social challenges society is currently facing. The issue of difficulty in life is at the...

Find peace and calm amid the busyness of your life with this new book by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Designed to be both inspiration and guidebook for those new to mindfulness practice, Making Space offers easy-to-follow instructions for setting up a breathing room, listening to a bell, sitting, breathing, and walking meditations, and cooking...

Awakening of the Heart is a comprehensive, single volume collection of the Buddha’s key sutras, translated with contemporary commentary by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. It is an essential complement to Happiness, the bestselling collection of meditation and mindful practices released in 2009. Awakening of the Heart captures the heart of Buddhist wisdom and Thich...

A Handful of Quiet presents one of the best known and most innovative meditation practices developed by Thich Nhat Hanh as part of the Plum Village community’s practice with children. Pebble meditation is a playful and fun activity that parents and educators can do with their children to introduce them to meditation. It is designed...

This book is a memoir of how a skeptical, fast-talking New Yorker became Thich Nhat Hanh’s editor, turned forty, realized she was aging, and slowly and reluctantly started to absorb mindfulness practice and grow up. Scenes with Thich Nhat Hanh and the author’s two vividly exuberant older parents, illustrate how the author adapts mindfulness techniques...

Zen teacher Glen Schneider has developed a series of simple practices to help us cultivate happiness and fulfillment in the course of our daily lives. Happiness is far more than a positive feeling that comes and goes, happiness is wired into the physiology of our brains. It is a skill we can all develop through...

Unfinished Conversation is a story of profound grief and the journey to healing that followed. Based on a journal Robert Lesoine kept during the two years following the suicide of his best friend, Unfinished Conversation will help readers through the process of reflecting on and affirming the raw immediacy of survivors’ emotions. Each short chapter focuses on...

To sit is to restore ourselves, to become fully present and fully alive in the here and now.—Thich Nhat Hanh How to Sit provides simple directions on the mechanics of posture and breathing, along with instructions for how best to achieve the awakened, relaxed, state of clarity to cultivate concentration and compassion through meditation. Thich Nhat...

In Is Nothing Something? Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh answers heartfelt, difficult, and funny questions from children of all ages. Illustrated with original full-color artwork by Jessica McClure, Is Nothing Something? will help adults plant the seeds of mindfulness in the young children in their lives. Beginning with the most basic questions, “What is important...

How to Eat clearly and succinctly explains how you can incorporate eating as a form of meditation. The book provides practical advice on how to become truly nourished through the mindful preparation, serving, eating, and cleaning up of food. Eating a meal in mindfulness reveals that you are nourished by the whole universe. This awareness helps...

In Beginning Anew, Sister Chân Không shares a concrete, four-part process that can help anyone clear up misunderstandings, communicate more honestly and openly with the people around them, and heal relationships. Thousands have been introduced to the beginning anew practice at the retreats led worldwide each year by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. When we’re...

The secret to happiness is to acknowledge and transform suffering, not to run away from it. In No Mud, No Lotus, Thich Nhat Hanh offers practices and inspiration transforming suffering and finding true joy. Thich Nhat Hanh acknowledges that because suffering can feel so bad, we try to run away from it or cover it...

New York Times Relationships & Religion Bestseller Featured by Maria Popova on Brainpickings How to Love is the third title in Parallax’s Mindfulness Essentials Series of how-to titles by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, introducing beginners and reminding seasoned practitioners of the essentials of mindfulness practice. This time Nhat Hanh brings his signature clarity, compassion, and...

Michael Jordan credits George Mumford with transforming his on-court leadership of the Bulls, helping Jordan lead the team to six NBA championships. Mumford also helped Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum, and Lamar Odom and countless other NBA players turn around their games. A widely respected public speaker and coach, Mumford is sharing his own story and...

In How to Relax, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh shares inspiration and clear, simple directions for exploring mindfulness meditation. With sections on healing, relief from nonstop thinking, transforming unpleasant sounds, solitude, being at peace, and more, How to Relax includes meditations to help you achieve the benefits of relaxation no matter where you are. Pocket–sized with...

This new translation of the Buddha’s most important, most studied teaching offers a radical new interpretation. In September, 2014 Thich Nhat Hanh completed a profound and beautiful new English translation of the Prajñaparamita Heart Sutra, one of the most important and well-known sutras in Buddhism. The Heart Sutra is recited daily in Mahayana temples and...

This guide for adults working with adolescent girls will help them explore and develop their emotional, social, and spiritual selves. Young people are hungry and capable of engaging in meaningful explorations of themselves and the world around them. Adolescent girls especially have a deep desire and capacity to know themselves and explore their own spirituality....

2017 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award – Gold Winner, Business & Career 2016 Nautilus Book Award – Silver Medal, Personal Growth This is the book your money–savvy best friend, therapist, and accountant would write if they could. It’s the book about money for people who don’t even want to think about money, until the arrival of that...

Drawing Your Own Path is an account of how multi–media artist John Simon’s daily drawing discipline became a meditation practice, and how that meditation illuminated his creative source. A practical guidebook full of the Simon’s own art, Drawing Your Own Path offers meditators an alternative path to ‘just sitting’ and offers artists a way to mindfully examine...

In this picture book for children and adults, illustrated by Jim Durk, who is adored by thousands of children for his many Clifford the Big Red Dog and Thomas the Steam Engine books, a young boy discovers his mind is like a puppy, always wandering away, into the past or the future. He sets about...

Transform dating and the often-fraught search for a fulfilling relationship into a fun, exciting adventure using mindfulness techniques and practices. Dating is a 2 billion dollar industry. Everyone, it seems, is looking for love but for so many it is an endless struggle. In Seeking Soulmate: Ditch the Dating Game and Find Real Connection, Brooklyn-based...

“Followers and newcomers to Nhat Hanh’s teaching alike will find this collection inspiring for everyday practice and for social engagement in the world.” — Publisher’s Weekly This collection of autobiographical and teaching stories from peace activist and Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh is thought provoking, inspiring, and enjoyable to read. Collected here for the first time,...

The five bestselling handbooks of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Mindfulness Essentials Series, How to Sit, How to Eat, How to Walk, How to Love, and How to Relax, are collected together for the first time in a beautifully designed gift box. The box contains all five titles in their original trade paperback editions, each printed with...

Six books to begin your mindfulness home library: BEING PEACE has been a bestseller with over 250,000 copies sold and is the seminal founding work by Thich Nhat Hanh. HAPPINESS offers Thich Nhat Hanh’s central teaching that, through mindfulness, we can learn to live in the present moment instead of in the past and in the...

Together, Awakening Joy and Awakening Joy for Kids offer a hands-on guide for grown-ups to nourish themselves and raise mindful, happy children. The principles of these teachings and exercises are universal, although much of the material includes Buddhist philosophy drawn from the Baraz’s thirty years as a meditation teacher and spiritual counselor. They share a simple yet powerful message...

Awakening Joy for Kids offers a hands-on guide for grown-ups to nourish themselves and raise mindful, happy children. Puppy Mind is a lighthearted story about our wandering minds that teaches the basics of mindfulness. Together, these books illustrate how parents, teachers, and kids learn the pause that can make all the difference in a day, and in a...

Create a career that expresses your life's core intention as you use mindfulness-based guide to clarify your true calling, create a vision for meaningful vocation, and enact practical steps to make that vision a vivid reality.

A concise and inspirational book for anyone dealing with pain by a long time palliative care doctor who is greatly inspired by Native American wisdom and the natural world. This book is a celebration of impermanence and what it means to be awake, alive, and connected to the world. The Nest in the Stream is an...

Pregnancy and new motherhood are often thought of as the most joyful, exciting, and blissful times in your life—but they can also be difficult and overwhelming. Yoga therapy offers practical mind-body tools (simple breath, movement, and mindfulness practices) to support you and provide solace, steadiness, and ease in difficult times. Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders...

The Five Mindfulness Trainings (also referred to as “Precepts”)—not to kill, steal, commit adultery, lie, or take intoxicants—are the basic statement of ethics and morality in Buddhism. Zen Master and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh argues eloquently for their applicability in our daily lives and on a global scale. Nhat Hanh discusses the value and...

Written especially for the teacher or camp director who wants to bring mindfulness, social and emotional learning (SEL), and the arts into their busy day through storytelling and fun games, this book offers a complete course that helps kids identify and talk about their feelings, self-regulate and self-soothe when stressed, and learn from easy mindfulness...

Formulated during the Vietnam War, these ethical guidelines remain a penetrating expression of traditional Buddhist morality and how to come to terms with contemporary issues. Interbeing offers a practical blueprint for living mindfully, one that has proven useful and meaningful to people from all walks of life. The book also includes a brief history, ceremonies, and...

Zen symbols and the gentle reflections of nature are united in Nicholas Kirsten-Honshin’s meditative artwork. The Thich Nhat Hanh mini calendar combines Honshin’s graceful paintings, infused with transcendental and archetypal symbols, with the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh, renowned Zen master and peace activist. His gentle wisdom will inspire and guide you on your own...

Mindfulness is the practice of cultivating full awareness of the present moment. Mindful Living Every Day, filmed on location in Plum Village, France, gives an overview of the concrete practices that help bring awareness to our breath, body, and mind in each moment. Members of the monastic and lay community of Zen Master Thich Nhat...